MICHAEL: The belief that you must give up all your attachments crumbles in light of the realization that it is not possible for You to actually be attached to anything!! That’s right. The witnessing presence that You already are is pure and contains no parts, objects or impurities. Thus you are always and forever unattached, regardless of what a thought may claim. More from swamiji, who is commenting on the Astavakra Samhita:

“I am not saying you SHOULD NOT be attached. Astavakra is telling us you are NOT attached. You are not attached to anything. It is the mind which develops attachments: ‘I want this to stay, I want that person to stay, I want this circumstance, this wealth, this health, this place, this environment, I want this to continue.’

This is the mind thinking. Yet beyond the mind, the Atman, the witness, You the being consciousness… you’re not attached to anything, not even to the mind itself. The mind itself disappears in deep sleep. You’re not attached to anything.”

What we seek is our true self. However, our true self is not an object, but that which knows or is aware of all objects. We are subtler than objects, so we are aware of objects, but objects are not aware of us. For example, you are aware of your body but your body is not aware of you. If you changed your name, would your body ‘know’ this? No. But You would. What is this You that knows or is aware? It’s obviously not a thought, since thoughts are another ‘thing’ we are aware of.

Has not this awareness been present throughout your existence? What else can you say this about?? Without awareness, you couldn’t ‘know’ anything. So awareness is prior to knowledge, even prior to space and time, for without awareness what would ‘know of’ space and time?

Notice that you don’t have to ‘do anything’ to become aware. You are already aware. Simply stop and recognize what has always already been so: that the belief that ‘I’ am a body/mind is just that, a belief. What is aware of this belief? You! But not ‘you’ as an ever-changing self-image (another object), but as you truly are right here/now… ever-present, limitless, attributeless, causeless awareness.

If we want wholeness, we will not find it in a fragment. What’s a fragment? A thought is a fragment. A feeling is a fragment. The story of “me” is a fragment. Any movement can only ever take you to a fragment because you are already wholeness itself. It’s our ignorance/conditioning that keeps us from truly seeing this and so it’s our ignorance/conditioning that must be seen through. This is what Satsang is for.

“When my happiness is the result of action, it is always in the future.” –Swami Tejomayananda

MICHAEL: If I feel I must do something to attain happiness, then I must believe my happiness is in the future, and not already present. However, what if my very actions themselves, which can only take place in the present moment, where seen as joyous? In other words, that I have a laptop on which to type these words on, what a joy! That I have hands with which to type, what a joy! That I have a roof over my head to protect this body from the cold winter temperature, what a joy!

What if our joy lies not in the future, which is uncertain and unpredictable, but in genuine gratitude for that which is already here now? How? By being grateful for all the many things which we had heretofore taken for granted. You have working eyes to read these words right now, what a blessing! You have a working mind, right now, with which to reflect on this post, what a blessing!

Byron Katie has book titled, “A Thousand Names for Joy,” and it is pointing at exactly this. Seeing the joy and miracle in every moment, just as it is. How? By shifting my focus from the results of my action (which is out of my control) to a childlike joy and gratitude of being able to perform the action itself.

Death is for the body, not you. The body has been endlessly growing old and changing since its birth, yet have you not been the unchanging witness throughout? And cannot the same be said for the “self” you take yourself to be. Has not that one also been endlessly changing since it first manifested in your mind? So, if the body and self are ceaselessly changing, where are you in all this?

No where! You are not. That’s the point… there’s isn’t a you!! Seeing this is freedom... for no one. It’s liberation from what was never so, but as long as it was believed seemed to be so. The “tooth fairy” is a made up story and is no different from the story of “me.” Both are illusory, but seem real if believed.

The story of “me,” like the “tooth fairy,” is a fiction, and not your essential nature. Now it’s time to awaken from that imagined limitation. To shed our ignorance and see that you were never that bound one, because you now know/realize/understand with your entire being that you have always been eternally free.

The only “thing” that’s conscious is YOU. This is what must be realized. Take a look around you… are you not surrounded by material objects, including your body? Only YOU, Consciousness, is sentient. Everything else is insentient. Without YOU, there is no world, no experience, nothing.

Our suffering comes when we are not clear on which is which. When I confuse myself with an insentient thought or feeling or experience, I suffer. Why? Because I am taking myself to be something I am not and have never been. Everything changes but Consciousness, YOU.